A meeting in Aalborg had already been in the planning even before the presentation of an Ansuz product in hifistatement took place. But like so many things in life, these plans proved to be obsolete from March onwards. But the postponement also had its good side: Thereupon I could give a listen to the pre-series models of Aavik's 180 and 280 series as well as those from Børresen's new Z line.

The trip to Aalborg - after all, more than 1,200 kilometers - was naturally of different nature compared to what I had thought at the beginning of the year, given the fact that you want to avoid crowded trains and planes for the time being. Well, nowadays there is no way around decelerated travel, especially because I am not one of those long-distance drivers with an affinity for high speed, like Ansuz boss Lars Kristensen, who even on the short distance from the center of Aalborg to the company headquarters gave an idea of how much horsepower his BMW M4 has under its hood. So my wife and I covered manageable distances, took time for relaxed stopovers and spent three evenings at dinner with each of the hifidtatement authors living up in the north of Germany and who I am normally used to meet at trade fairs - understandably, those are not taking place at the moment - and, moreover, who I unfortunately meet in person much too rarely: the current situation can also have its advantages.

I already mentioned in the article about the Ansuz PowerSwitch that I had met Lars Kristensen somewhere in the last century when he was still working for the cable specialists of Nordost. What I didn't know before I met them was that he managed to win Michael Børresen as developer for Nordost back then. However, since the Danish duo felt that Michael's creativity did not translate into new products quickly enough, they both left Nordost and participated in the founding of Raihdo, as you can easily spot when comparing Michael Børresen's creations at that time with the ones launched under his name today. Eventually, however, Lars Kristensen and Michael Børresen wanted to work more independently, so they left Raidho and founded Upper Level ApS in 2017 as the main shareholders with two other partners. Under this umbrella structure the companies Ansuz Acoustics, Aavik Acoustics and Børresen develop and produce cables, network technology and LAN switches, electronics and loudspeakers. It is therefore possible to purchase a complete system that exactly meets the expectations of Lars Kristensen and Michael Børresen. Of course, this also requires high-quality equipment supports and accessories for resonance control: Ansuz also has component feet, cable lifters, record stabilizers, resonators and titanium racks on offer. As you can see from my colleague Kemper's test review of the PowerSwitch A2 including Ansuz peripherals and my own report on the PowerSwitch D-TC Supreme, the quality level of Ansuz components also unfolds in other non-proprietary systems and achieves what the company name sets out to promise: Upper Level. With the D-TC this even reaches the highest level - I don't know of any switch that is better sounding. The company name, however, also gives indication of the price tags for Aavik electronics, Børresen loudspeakers and the Ansuz portfolio.